Aristotle: Articulated the Principle of the Mean
"What to make of Trump’s endless profanity? He’s unhinged and
mentally incapable of the job. He should one hundred percent be removed by use
of the 25th Amendment. Anyone willing to impeach on day one and remove Trump
from office on day two has my vote in the midterms. Enough already with this cruel
toxic clown." - NY Times comment
In his recent WSJ essay, 'Where Did The Independent Leaders Go?' (Oct. 5, p. A15) Joseph Epstein rails against the nation's bleak political landscape, replete with "ambiguity, antipathy and ambivalence." He then invokes Aristotle "he is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue" adding:
"The virtuous life for Aristotle was marked by finding the mean or happy medium, when confronted with rivaling claims. The happy medium is what is missing from our political life."
But who does he name as 'virtuous politicians'?
"There are no political leaders I find admirable apart from Benjamin Netanyahu and Vlodymyr Zelensky. By contrast there are many outright villains on the scene."
None of which include the current felon and tyrant occupying the White House in the person of Donald J. Trump. Showing the only grasp he has of Aristotle was probably extracted from a Cliff Notes version of The Nichomachean Ethics. Especially as he includes Bibi Netanyahu as one of the leaders worthy of admiration. The same degenerate who likely knew of the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 attack well in advance and did nothing. Then in its wake oversaw the slaughter of 70,000 in Gaza including medical - health teams. This is also the renegade who helped Trump launch the war on Iran which killed over 1,800 including school kids and sent the entire world into an economic maelstrom - provoking Iran to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. The last thing one can say about Bibi is that he's in any way "admirable."
What has Epstein to say about Trump, the Hitler wannabe? Anything? Yes.
"How did this political situation come about? Some would blame Donald Trump whose ready recourse to invective has doubtless intensified our sad situation."
And that's all you have? His invective? What about what he's DONE? Mayhap he missed one of the thousands of pieces documenting Trump's reign of terror, e.g.
Trump Reigns as Unapologetic, Dark Lord of Misrule
Unable to perceive Trump is at the center of all the hate, division, political polarization and disruption. From dispatching thugs into Blue city streets to round up and deport immigrants - even killing U.S. citizens in the process, to killing hundreds using Hellfire drones in fishing boat strikes in the Caribbean, to already having incited an insurrection that devastated the Capitol in 2021, and then pardoned the rabble traitors who did it. Nope, Epstein has a total blind spot regarding Trump's role in destroying our political landscape, exemplified when he writes at the end of his piece:
"The happy medium is what is missing from our political life. But 'My way of the highway might suffice as our current political slogan."
Failing to see or acknowledge this is precisely Traitor Trump's core slogan, amped up with jet fuel ever since the Conservo Supremes gift of immunity back in 2024. Why is Joseph Epstein so blind? Well, because he hasn't really read Aristotle.
"Moral virtue" (in Aristotle's book, 'The Nichomachean Ethics'), is that state of character in which a person has the habit of choosing the mean between the extremes of excess and deficiency.
But this is exactly the deficiency self-evident in every Trump action. He is incapable of ever finding the 'mean' in any decision or action or communication. As when he blurted out on his Trash Social on Easter:
"Open the fucking Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. JUST WATCH! A whole civilization will die tonight never to be brought back again."
No one with any sentience can say this is a person at a 'happy medium' or mean in his communications, morality or mental stability. Indeed, Peggy Noonan in her WSJ column in the wake of this outburst (April 11-12, p. A13) wrote:
"The post left his friends and foes slackjawed. They constituted hitting a new bottom, a new and infernal, face-lit-by -flames bottom, in world communications."
Adding:
"The posts weren't showbiz they were sinister. You destabilize the world when, as the American president, you say such things. You rob your own nation of a claim to moral seriousness."
Got that, Mr. Epstein? Moral seriousness. Hence, we can acknowledge that to Aristotle the "mean" was in its way a measure of excellence - the peak of what was "just right" given the situation and people involved. Did Trump demonstrate that with his outburst, or the future ones - including from a recent rally in Nebraska where he invited Iran to "take out" two American cities, e.g.
Mentally Ill Trump Thinks It’s Funny to Joke About Iran Bombing US Cities Into Oblivion
Though the reactionary media at FOX treat it as another Trump joke. It is not, and this incessant 'if he says off the wall stuff it's joke' is what destroys the reasoning power of too many pundits, including the likes of Epstein. Who, if he really read Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics' would never fob the responsibility for our pathetic state of polity onto anyone but Trump.
Let's get back to the details of what the medium means which escapes Epstein. "Just right" means redounding to the benefit of the most people, not the least. Trump's assorted outbursts - as well as his threats against voting by mail do not do that. In addition, the common element underscoring Aristotle's moral virtues is conformity with right reasoning. That is, taking all aspects of a particular situation into account to come to a correct choice. That is, the sort of choice an impartial observer would come to. And it is emphatically what Dotard Trump has never done.
As Aristotle articulates it in detail:
"The Just then, is a certain proportionable thing. For proportion does not merely apply to number in the abstract, but to number generally, since it is equality of ratios and implies four terms at least (that this is the case in what is called discrete proportion is plain and obvious, but it is true also in continual proportion, for this uses the one term as two and mentions it twice, thus A:B:C may be expressed A:B::B:C. ....It will stand then thus: A:B::C:D, and then permutando, A:C::B:D and then (supposing C and D to represent the things) A+C:B+D::A:B. The distribution in fact consisting in putting together these terms thus: and if they are put together so as preserve this same ratio, the distribution puts them together justly. So then the joining of the first and third and second and fourth proportionals is the Just in the distribution, and this Just is the mean relatively to that which violates the proportionate, for the proportionate is a mean and the Just is proportionate. "
That leads to the conclusion:
"The Unjust is that which violates the proportionate."
Trump, however, constantly violates the proportionate as my numerous examples have already shown - from killing hundreds of fishermen in boats under the pretext of being 'drug runners' - when he pardoned an actual drug king, to launching a war of choice on Iran, to dispatching ICE thugs into U.S. cities to terrorize the populations.
This warrants further elaboration by way of Aristotle's "Principle of the mean". To briefly put it into perspective: Every considered action - for whatever reason - has a "mean" or middle choice, as well as two extremes, one deficient, the other in excess. The "just" or "mean state" of action then - based on the above articulation - means one avoiding either extreme.
For example, in the case of the reckless immigrant deportations the Trump bunch would only reach a just state deporting confirmed criminals. Not deporting 370,000 hard working Haitians - many of whom have been in the country ten years of more - assisting in nursing homes, hospitals, as well as home health aides which many incapacitated seniors need. But no, the DHS just wantonly deports en masse, including to nations like Sudan and Liberia where the immigrants don't come from.
We see then that Aristotle's "moral virtue" exercised in moral action can lie between the excess of extreme moral indignation leading to persecution (i.e. Trump's extra- judicial killings of fishermen in boats) or laxity by dismissing said transgressions(i.e. Trump's pardons of over 1,600 insurrectionists). This cognitive assessment of the mean is not easy but ought to be within the reach of any sane and decent human. As Aristotle reminds us (p.32, The Nicomachean Ethics):
"And so it is hard to be good, for surely hard it is in each instance to find the mean point...and so to act in due proportion, at the right time, with the right object, and in the right manner."
One thing we can aver, at least those of us who've really read Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, is that neither Donald Trump or his MAGA cult, qualify. And also Joseph Epstein would do well to read the whole book before he next opines on our politics meeting Aristotle's standards (or not), as opposed to the 'Cliff Notes' version.
See also:
Aspects Connecting Practical Reason, Morality, Law and Whether Actual Human Evil Exists
And:
by Robert Reich | October 16, 2026 - 5:21am | permalink
And:
by Thomas Kika | October 11, 2026 - 5:10am | permalink
The U.S. benefited from a major sociocultural "superpower" for decades, but now, President Donald Trump's "cruelty and lawlessness" have that power "crumbling before our eyes," per a new analysis from The i Paper.
Writing for the outlet on Saturday, special correspondent and columnist Patrick Cockburn highlighted the now "grossly out of date" sentiments from the beloved 1942 film, Casablanca, in which would-be refugees desperately tried to reach the U.S. in order to escape "fascism, violence and corruption." This image of the country, he argued, "had at least some substance" at the time, and until very recently.
And:
Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate - The New York Times
Excerpt:
As the president threatens to wipe out Iran and attacks the pope, even some former allies and advisers are questioning whether he has grown increasingly unbalanced, describing him as “lunatic” and “clearly insane.”
A series of disjointed, hard-to-follow and sometimes-profane statements capped by his “a whole civilization will die tonight” threat to wipe Iran off the map last week and his head-spinning attack on the “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” pope on Sunday night have left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power.
It is not just a concern voiced by partisans on the left, late-night comics or mental health professionals making long-distance diagnoses. It can be heard now among retired generals, diplomats and foreign officials. And most strikingly, it can be heard now on the political right among onetime allies of the president.
Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer in Mr. Trump’s first term, told the journalist Jim Acosta that the president is “a man who is clearly insane” and that his recent string of belligerent, middle-of-the-night social media posts “highlights the level of his insanity.”
And:
by Jaime O’Neill | September 7, 2026 - 5:10am | permalink
And:
BREAKING: UN STUNNED by INSANE Trump speech
And:
by Connie Peck | September 25, 2026 - 4:46am | permalink
In a highly aggressive 40-minute speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, President Donald Trump once again issued ominous threats to Iran, saying: “I have a very big decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world? Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill or destroy people or countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”
He implied that his “very big decision” would come after the midterms, suggesting that Iran is waiting to make a deal until then and, if one isn’t forthcoming, then he would choose annihilation.
And:
Did Trump Just Threaten to Annihilate Iran From the UN Podium?
And:
Dr Bandy Lee WARNS of the Nuclear Threat Donald Trump Poses to Humanity.
And:
Nobel prize winning psychiatrist: Trump is more dangerous than ever to our nation and world!
And:
Opinion | Trump Has Finally Lost the Plot - The New York Times
Excerpt:
In the CECOT affair, hundreds of migrants were flown to El Salvador’s mega-prison without hearings — and the secretary of homeland security made a well-publicized visit there to gloat about their harsh treatment. As federal agencies posted triumphant videos of raids and arrests, and Mr. Trump suggested that American citizens should be next, the message was: Be afraid.
Every administration tries to shape the culture. What sets this one apart is not the ambition, but the means and the scale — not persuasion but coercion, and not on one front but everywhere all at once, in ways that were unprecedented and found by courts to be unlawful. Mr. Trump and his administration sought to bully and commandeer private institutions, to redirect the culture, and to remake society from above by force and fear.
And:
by Thom Hartmann | February 19, 2025 - 7:01am | permalink
One of the enduring mysteries in today’s American political life is why so many Republican politicians and their friends are adopting or promoting openly Nazi symbols, iconography, and slogans.
Is it a shout-out to the hardcore racists and haters that make up the GOP’s base, all just a performance to get enough votes to win elections? Or a proclamation that the end-goal of Republican governance is the destruction of American democracy, perhaps in deference to Vladimir Putin? How about it’s being a bizarre attempt at trolling people old or well-educated enough to remember or know what Nazism inevitably leads to?
And why are America’s mainstream media so unwilling to even report on, much less discuss, all the Nazi and neo-Nazi references surrounding Trump and today’s captive Republicans?
